Mercedes Explain Reason Behind Bottas’ Slow Getaway

According to Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows, Valtteri Bottas‘ sluggish start was down to poor grip. It was not a clutch issue, like the Finn believed.

Bottas was on pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, and looked set to lead into the first corner. With limited overtaking chances at the Circuit de Catalunya, a win was almost guaranteed.

However, whatever that could go wrong, went wrong for the Finn as his Mercedes got slightly bogged down when the lights went off. Teammate Lewis Hamilton had a better getaway and outran his team mate into Turn 1. From that point onwards, Hamilton did not surrender the lead at all to anyone.

In the aftermath of the race, Bottas believed that a “strange” clutch issue was to blame for his launch off the line. However, Meadows suspected that the patch of tarmac under the Mercedes was the cause.

“We believe it was just a lack of grip on the pole position side,” he said in the team’s post-race ‘Pure Pitwall‘ debrief video.

“If you look at the support races, more often than not the second position guy or even third or fourth had a better start than the pole guy.”